1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates to a system and method for creating computer animation performances in real time, and simulating multiple camera views or angles.
2. Description of the Related Art
Creating computer animated performances such as televisions shows and movies can be an extremely time consuming and expensive process. One approach for creating computer animations involves creating animations on a frame by frame basis, and is perhaps the most time consuming.
In a current approach for animating a computer generated character, motion capture is used to record a performer's movements. Further, the character's body is animated based on the recorded movements. The performer typically wears a motion capture suit having a plurality of markers, each of which are usually located near a joint to identify the motion by the positions or angles between the markers. The markers, which may be acoustic, inertial, light emitting diode (“LED”), magnetic or reflective markers, or combinations of any of these, are tracked by sensors and/or cameras. Computer software translates the positions, angles, velocities, accelerations of the markers, thereby providing an accurate digital representation of the motion of the performer.
Yet another approach includes translating hand puppetry movements to computer motion data and generating a computer generated character based on the hand puppetry movements. Such an approach is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,377,281 and is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. In the method and apparatus disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,377,281, performer movement information is received at a computer from a manual input device that receives live manual manipulations from a performer. Generally, the manual input device includes a plurality of position transducers, such as analog position transducer potentiometers mounted in a mechanical assembly that simulate the motions used by a puppeteer to manipulate a conventional puppet. The mechanical elements or physical controls are directly manipulated by a performer, and the electromechanical transducers convert mechanical motion of the mechanical elements into proportional electrical signals.
For example, the hands of a performer are received in left-hand and right-hand mechanical assemblies that include levers, rotatable shafts, tiltable plates, and related equipment. The mechanical assemblies may include a gyro waldo, stick, arm waldo, etc. The mechanical assemblies can be manually manipulated through a range of positions that are homologous to the positions through which the hands of a performer move when manipulating a conventional hand puppet, electromechanically actuated puppet or other artificial creature. For example, the mechanical input device may include one or more joysticks, data gloves, pushbuttons, or other elements to receive mechanical movement and generate electrical signals.
However, a significant problem with creating computer animated performances is that the artist cannot view the result of his or her creation in real time. For example, the motion capture stage is usually a blank stage with little or no props. In a real-life scene, actors interact with physical props, other actors, and can easily visualize their surroundings in a scene. Motion capture performers effectively cannot see their surroundings in a scene, as the surroundings are computer generated and not viewable in the real world on stage. All the motion capture performer sees is a black stage, perhaps with some indication of boundaries within the scene.
Therefore, it can be a challenge for the performer to provide realistic looking movements within a scene. If the performer needs to interact with an object or another character, the performance can be even more complicated. There are often no physical props or other characters on the stage in a motion capture performance. The performer typically tries his best to visualize what the surroundings of the scene would look like, but the resultant performance is often not ideal. There is significant guesswork involved in providing a motion capture performance. The performer must do his best to perform about a blank stage, and can only review the animated results of his performance at a later time, once the performance has been completed. If it is decided the performance is not ideal, the performer must try his best to analyze what aspects of the performance need improvement and try the performance again. As a result, this process can still be quite time consuming.